The June edition of National Geographic featured an article on an army of life-sized statues buried in a Chinese emperor’s tomb. As I flipped through the magazine, hoping for some sketch inspiration, this photo caught my eye. And without even intending to do so, I drew my first human face for this project! I could have spent another day on this sketch, but that would be counter-productive to my current goal of working smoothly and quickly.

This guy has been with me a long time. He’s a candlestick holder, copied from one of the gargoyles of Notre Dame. On a high school class trip to Boston, a friend and I discovered the most wonderful dark, dusty little store selling trinkets and T-shirts of gargoyles, skulls and gravestones. I think most of my souvenir money for the trip ended up in that shop.

“Wallet and keys. What else do you need? Let’s go.” Best advice I ever received. Of course, that was before I had kids. These days, the idea of leaving the house with nothing but wallet, keys, and of course, a phone, is a hazy memory.